Movieline Online

THE FLICK: Nostalgia is a weird and wonderful thing. It can make even the most lowly of cultural achievements seem like works of art worthy of high praise – or at least high bids on Ebay. By way of example, Slither, written and directed by James “yes-I-wrote-Scooby-Doo-but-also-the-Dawn-of-the-Dead­-remake” Gunn is an unapologetic re-hash of ‘80s horror/sci-fi; films like Critters, From Beyond and, most directly, Night of the Creeps, which were mainstays of VHS video rental shelves for an entire decade. We’re talking gooey, cheesy exercises in excess that only now – by the passing of time and the advent of DVD – are hailed as cinematic milestones by a small but fervent fanbase. And like a low-rent Tarantino, Gunn has channeled the masses’ desire for a retro-rekindling with a movie that – besides the addition of copious CGI effects - feels very much like it was produced in 1985, warts and all. When an alien consciousness crash lands on Earth by way of a stray meteor, town bigwig Grant G...

THE FLICKS: Although it has arrived with little fanfare, Warner Brothers’ Hollywood Legends of Horror Collection deserves a good bit of trumpeting. The six-DVD set (packaged very similarly to last year’s Val Lewton Collection) contains some once fabulously rare examples of MGM studio’s forays into the cinema of the macabre, if not quite all-out horror films. The Mark of the Vampire (1935) holds the distinction of being Lugosi’s first time donning the cape since his breakout role in Dracula, although as it turns out, (spoiler) he and his vampire daughter are actually actors hired to scare a murderer into confessing his crimes. Muddled and mixed in tone, the film wraps around itself so many times, this legendary plot confusion is almost part of the appeal. What remains is some superb set design and atmospheric photography by Dracula director Tod Browning, whose technical skills seem to have improved dramatically, along with actress Carrol Borland striking pose as a (faux) undead temptres...